Letterboxd

Lives up to the rest of the Paddington films, though this one has a different director. I've always appreciated the editing and cinematography in these films. They are a little bit Wes Anderson in some of their shots. I think they do a really great job of capturing the essence of the paddington books. Fidelity wise I think it is clear the people associated with these films appreciate the source material.

I especially want to call out the interplay between the editor and Olivia Colman. Colman could often get a laugh from the audience by using her skill at timing/delivery of her expressions, but that requires a good editor (and director) that can actually capture those sort of pauses correctly.

Minor thing, but I saw it at a theater that also provided subtitles (those seem to be becoming increasingly common). I think they may have also normalized the audio, except for the spoken word, which was always clear and discernible. It isn't bad to always be able to hear the words easily, but it sometimes feels slightly off when the "overpowering hero's journey" music is at a lower level than the characters conversations.

Anyway, good movie.

Letterboxd

It feels almost obscene to talk about this film, as part of the message seems to be that we should focus on the moment's beauty without trying to catalogue (or worse promote) it.

I mostly write with the intent to record my own thoughts for my future self. A sort of letter to the future. But I can't deny that some ape part of my brain hopes that others appreciate the things I write. Even in writing notes to myself, I can't fully shake the desire to be recognized by others.

I wish I had the strength of character/will/enlightenment/connectedness that this cleaner has. I think it may be aspirational in my case, but it hits you hard.

Good cinema.

I'm a little pissed off with myself because I basically started using the stairclimber at the gym. I started and finished this book entirely on that cursed machine at roughly 54 steps per minute. I am pretty sure that this was a good book. Unfortunately, I mostly associate it with an elevated heart rate and exercise.

Anyway, through the haze of physicality, I vaguely remember feeling that the writing was pretty good and that some of the observations of place were well crafted. The setting was cute and fun.

This book deserved better than the treatment I gave it. For that I am sorry. I'll stick to watching lectures and youtube when I exercise.

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Watched this over 2 separate days. I was just in the mood for a Hong Kong comedy. It's fun to see the different cinematic tones and styles that other countries have.

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I thought the central character's synesthesia (had to look up the spelling) was an interesting twist. The art style was gorgeous. I also think I noticed that there were many surprisingly quiet scenes, where you are meant to hear what the character hears from their point of view. I liked that.

There is no real plot to speak of, just a group of high school students finding each other, starting a band, and revealing themselves to the people who love them.

I enjoyed the Christian setting simply because it is novel in film at this time. I enjoyed the pace of life that these characters lived and the setting they grew up in.

Humorous: Also, almost certain that a version of "Born Slippy" plays in a montage scene. I'm old, but I was kinda floored by it's inclusion as it associates so strongly with Trainspotting, heroin, et all. I guess realistically it means nothing to most people these days, but threw me a for a loop when I heard it.

Also, almost all the music sounds like new retro wave to me, which I find somewhat surprising for 17 year olds to be creating. What is old is new again.

Letterboxd

The ideas just seemed kind of childish. Reminded me a bit of the book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anathem, with the cloister of people who are living apart from mankind, protecting and gathering knowledge. Except this time it is a bunch of people who are sitting around waiting for the fall of humanity in order to rebuild, which I consider to be a bit of a cowardly position.

I think the most that I can say of this film is that it is interesting to think about what people were feeling at this time in history. And the sort of hopes they had about the future because of the past they had experienced and the present they were living.

I should re-read Anathem, that was a good book.

Letterboxd

I read the short story https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_of_Fact,_the_Truth_of_Feeling and figured I would try to find a few movies that are similar. So I watched "Strange Days" (about being able to share memories) last week and "Eternal Sunshine" this week (about being able to delete memories).

It was alright as a story. It seemed kind of obvious that pairing up with a functioning alcoholic would probably lead to tragedy considering his own character. I could see the need for deleting memories for PTSD, but the idea that adults would choose to actually delete a memory rather than face it seems... I don't know, really weird to me. That feels like a form of self harm, a sort of mini suicide.

I did really like some of the scene transitions as he wanders through his own mind. It also did quite a good job of repeatedly catching the sense of realization that "this is a dream". That was artful.

Letterboxd

I actually thought this would be closer to Friday as a film. Opening "cartoon violence" scene where a guy gets thrown into a wall and is completely fine kinda threw me off (I said to my movie buddy "Is this more like 'Blazzing Saddles'?" at that point). In the end I guess it was more like "Dude, where's my car?".

Anyway, a pretty funny movie, with 3 large weaknesses:

1. Some of the side actors were, ugh... limited... in range.
2. A strong editor could have cut the movie to the same runtime and probably put 1 or 2 additional scenes into the film.
3. The pacing became a little more accelerated at the end, but it was not enough to actually give you a sense of glee as things get wild. I want a layer cake built of interlocking plots coming together, instead it just felt like a brief sprint at the end.

Still, I'm a sucker for these sort of journey based (Odysseal?) type of films. It was funny enough, the characters where both good charming people, the story was compactly told.

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Not a perfect film, but damn if it does not have some interesting ideas and just a great sense of place.

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Idiotic fun.

Really elevated by three great scenes.

1. The scene where he squares off against another 80's channeling beekeeper in a gas station.
2. The scene where he takes down an entire scam call center.
3. The closing scene where he takes down some nebulous C corporation.

Campy fun.

Great (terrible) one liners relating to beekeeping, America, et all.

You should start a blog. Having your own little corner of the internet is good for the soul!

Inspired by Simon Wilson. I decided to try to resurect my long discarded blog. I wrote 2 things that I think are somewhat interesting.

1. A capture template in emacs for quickly capturing urls that I think are worth noting.
2. A script that takes those captures and commits and publishes them to my blog.

Here is the capture template

* %^{Title}
:PROPERTIES:
:CREATED: %T
:ATTRIBUTION: %^{Who should I attribute this to?}
:QUOTE: %^{Quote for this entry | nil}
:END:
%?

Here is the code in my .spacemacs that adds the template

(defun dotspacemacs/user-config ()
  ;; 2025-01-06 - Trying to setup a easier way to do quick blogs
  (setq org-capture-templates
    '(("f" "Found Blog Entry" entry (file+headline "~/blog/found.org" "Found")
      (file "~/orgs/capture_templates/found.org")))))

Now I can simply type org-capture Enter f to fill in this template and have it added to ~/blog/found.org under the Found root heading.

I then had Claude help me write a small script that basically parses every entry in ~/blog/found.org and adds it as a markdown entry to my static blog. The code is as follows.

import sys
import os
from datetime import datetime
import orgparse

def create_markdown(node):
    """Convert an org node to markdown blog post content."""
    # Extract link and title from heading
    title = node.get_heading().split(']')[1].strip() if '][' in node.get_heading() else node.get_heading()
    link = node.get_heading().split(']')[0].strip() if '][' in node.get_heading() else node.get_heading()

    # Get properties
    created = node.properties.get('CREATED', '').strip('<>')
    quote = node.properties.get('QUOTE', '')
    categories = node.properties.get('CATEGORIES', '')

    # Format date for filename and frontmatter
    date_obj = datetime.strptime(created, '%Y-%m-%d %a %H:%M')
    formatted_date = date_obj.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:00')
    filename = date_obj.strftime('%Y-%m-%d') + '-' + title.lower().replace(' ', '-') + '.md'
    categories_formated = [s for s in categories.split(",") if s]

    if link and 'link' not in categories:
        categories_formated.append('link')

    categories_formated = [f'"{s}"' for s in categories_formated]

    # Create frontmatter
    md_content = (
        '{\n'
        ':layout :post\n'
        f':title  "{title}"\n'
        f':date   "{formatted_date}"\n'
        f':categories [{",".join(categories_formated)}]\n'
        '}\n\n'
    )

    # Add quote if exists
    if quote and quote != 'nil':
        md_content += f'<blockquote>{quote}</blockquote>\n\n'

    # Add main content
    md_content += node.get_body()

    return filename, md_content

def process_org_file(org_path, output_dir):
    """Process org file and create markdown files."""
    if not os.path.exists(org_path):
        print(f"Error: Input file '{org_path}' not found.")
        return False

    os.makedirs(output_dir, exist_ok=True)

    try:
        root = orgparse.load(org_path)
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Error parsing org file: {e}")
        return False

    # Process each node that has the right depth (2 in your case, for ++)
    for node in root[1:]:  # Skip the root node
        if node.level == 2:  # Only process ++ entries
            try:
                filename, md_content = create_markdown(node)
                output_path = os.path.join(output_dir, filename)

                with open(output_path, 'w') as f:
                    f.write(md_content)

                print(f"Created: {output_path}")
            except Exception as e:
                print(f"Error processing entry {node.get_heading()}: {e}")
                continue

    return True

def main():
    if len(sys.argv) != 3:
        print("Usage: ./write_found_to_md.py <org_file> <output_directory>")
        sys.exit(1)

    org_path = sys.argv[1]
    output_dir = sys.argv[2]

    if process_org_file(org_path, output_dir):
        print("Conversion completed successfully.")
    else:
        print("Conversion failed.")
        sys.exit(1)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Humorously, I'll have to look a little harder to figure out how to actually make my title into a link. But I think it is a good start. :]

Letterboxd

Based on the preview, I thought this was a complete gimmick and would likely not have seen this film. I saw it as part of Cinemark's Secret Cinema series and am actually glad I did.

Context: I do not know who Robbie Williams is. The songs (this is a very light musical) playing throughout I am assuming are old hits? I am ambivalent about musicals. I generally avoid movies about celebrities.

With all that out of the way, I actually enjoyed this quite a bit. It is the same story you have heard a hundred times. A talented young performer, with a great deal of grit and luck, rises to the top. In doing so they become extremely dependent on alcohol, anti-anxiety drugs, cocaine, and eventually heroin. They either burn out or have some sort of come to Jesus moment and clean their life up. The story is so well trod that it isn't even interesting.

However, 2 choices really elevate this.

1. The choice to make him a anthropomorphized chimpanzee. I mean, it is so simple it is kind of inspired. Because he is a chimpanzee he is always identifiable in a crowd (important to this film). Because he is cg he has a range of expression that are greater than that afforded to a limited-by-physics human. His close-but-not-human range somehow allows him to say and do things that would seem melodramatic (overacted?) in a human, but make sense within his rendered expressiveness.
2. The musicals were actually pretty fun. Especially one of the early boy band group (forgot their name) running through the streets of London. I'm also assuming that the dance choreography between him and a woman on a boat were entirely CG, as they seemed supernaturally skilled. You can do a lot with a film if you just make it fun to look at.

Anyway, this is getting too long for my style of review, which are mostly just notes to my future self. Just wanted to say that I was impressed by the use of computer graphics here as well as the pacing and visuals of this film. I feel confident that the team that did this could have probably elevated any story and look forward to future work.

P.S. I told my movie buddy that I think I have resolved to never look up anything about Robbie Williams, as I am content to think of him as a broad chested 6 foot tall chimpanzee who can sing.

Letterboxd

About an hour after getting my Covid and Flu shots, I saw this on a whim because "boosters" made me think of Sonic as I was driving by the theater. Pretty decent, enough chuckle worthy moments to keep me going. Jim Carrey was easily the best thing in this film.

Letterboxd

A little disappointed. I wanted something weird like https://letterboxd.com/film/bram-stokers-dracula/ . This, was not that.

I've read the book, but have never seen the original https://letterboxd.com/film/nosferatu/.

As I said, I wanted something weird, frightening, sensually disturbing, maybe even something casually violent that really shocked me. I'm not really clear on what I didn't like about this film, but it just didn't catch me at any of the easy hooks that can get me engaged in a vampire flick.

An honest effort, but just not my thing.

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I enjoyed this despite not being much of a sports movie type of person. The film captured that this is a teenager who has drive but was not "on a path". Her home environment was awful, she was not being molded from a young age by a controlling influence, she was obviously completely out of her depth in terms of navigating "the game" of being an Olympic athlete. And yet she makes it happen anyway. The movie argues that she would not be where she was were it not for her coach, who was instrumental in helping her train. However, beyond that, he also seems to have been the "keeper of the flame" of her own internal fire. At many points she likely lacked the discipline or drive to keep going on her own, but her coach consistently reignited her passion to win. A good example in film that a coach not only imparts skills, but also mindset.

Letterboxd

A frequent thought of mine after watching a film is "this should have been an animation." I believe this was the first film I have seen where I thought "this should have been a audio program." The pleasures of this film are conveyed principally through voice and dialog; hearing Lynn Belvedere insult the suburban household he nannies.

I think it might have been interesting to release the entire thing as an audio program (this would require a narrator in parts), and then create a film afterwards that exactly superimposes on top of that.

Letterboxd

I was surprised to be somewhat underwhelmed by this film. I was particularly tired that evening and wonder if maybe I wasn't cogent enough to get it?

Stream of thoughts as I watched this:

• Where are they? Madagascar? South America? Nepal?
• Where did humanity go?
• It appears that humanity only recently left, as paper things are still present.
• Why is there a giant status of a human being? Why an even bigger one for a cat? The scaffolds around construction seem like the scaffold that a man would build (as opposed to, for instance, a golden retriever), what was their purpose?
• Are the bird and the cat long lost lovers or something? The bird keeps going out of its way to help the cat? Should I be reading into this?
• Is the cat the audience and the other animals are the seven deadly sins? Let's see, the capybara is sloth, the lemur is greed, the bird is pride... wait what is the golden retriever?
• Is this the afterlife and this whole thing some sort of transition you take between life and death?
• Wait, are the animals animals in their temperaments but human in their intelligence? I guess if a orangutan can pilot a go cart maybe a cat/capybera/bird can rudder a boat? Is that human level intelligence?
• Why did the bird ascend? Was it because of their earlier empathy to the cat?
• Is this supposed to be somehow related to the story of Babel? Are we supposed to judge each other by our deeds and not our words (assuming animals can't cross species talk)?

I eventually just got a little tired of trying to make sense of it. I still enjoyed the animation and the music, but I found the actual journey a little dull.

I suppose the end message was that a solitary animal (cat) chose to form a pack with a bunch of social animals, and by doing so let go of some of their natural fear and anxiety? I'm not sure.

Letterboxd

I think this is one of those films that probably sounded good in concept, but lacked tension in its actual implementation. Some of the plots points seemed fairly thin as well.

I meant to get [b:Empire of the Ants|837039|Empire of the Ants (La Saga des Fourmis, #1)|Bernard Werber|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388806191l/837039.SY75.jpg|123918] on inter-library loan but accidentally picked this up instead. Ended up reading it anyway and it is a quick romp through some of the more interesting breed of ants.

My only real criticism is that the author takes the position that we have to be convinced to take interest in these little critters at several points in the book. I found her insistence that I wasn't interested or that I could "skip ahead" at points to be a little annoying.

This was a solid surface overview of some of the more interesting types of ants accompanied by nice glossy pictures. Works for me.

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Too much of a "ending is open to interpretation" film for my taste. Still, fun throughout and even a little bit scary.

I am not much of a horror buff, but I thought it might be fun to see this Christian film 2 days after seeing https://letterboxd.com/samedhi/film/the-best-christmas-pageant-ever-2024/ . Which was preceeded by https://letterboxd.com/samedhi/film/conclave/ . It was fun to go on a bit of a Christian themed deep dive.

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I have not yet watched a Hallmark or Lifetime movie, though I intend to do so someday. I think this was a good intro to a sort of pro-christian, pro-family genre of film. I felt a sort of cognitive dissonance as I watched it, knowing that life is more complicated than the constraints that this movie allowed. It became fairly obvious fairly quickly that this is the sort of movie that would allow trouble, without allowing genuine problems to rear their ugly head. I think the closest the film may have come to a real problem was the mentioning of the erstwhile mother, who might have been something more dark (addict, prostitute, it is basically left to the imagination).

It is hard to really grade something when the majority of problems that most of humanity has are simply not present here. With that said, it is a cute movie that got me a little teary eyed at the nativity scene and what can I say about that?

It is enjoyable and pleasant to sit through. You will likely feel better walking out of the film than you felt walking into it. It has a few moral messages within it.

Letterboxd

Cute film, does not overstay its welcome. I feel might have been better as an animation than live action. Some of the dynamism of the situation might have been better captured by a skilled animator. Never quite made the jump to being touching for me, but I did enjoy the ending.

I do like how sometimes these Japanese films are ok with having a certain level of unexplained whimsy to them. Like not everything needs a perfectly defined and constrained universe. Internal consistency can sometimes be a bit overdone.

"Half Share" or "The Erotic Adventures of Ishmael Horatio 'Boytoy' Wang"

This book was a huge letdown. Honestly, I feel partly responsible—like I read too much into the first book.

Context: In [b:Quarter Share|2334538|Quarter Share (Golden Age of the Solar Clipper, #1)|Nathan Lowell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1273808382l/2334538.SY75.jpg|2341114], I thought we were seeing a shy, "homeschoole-vibed" young man thrown onto a spaceship, forced to grow up fast. The protagonist, Ishmael, has a sharp mind and a knack for deep focus, and he made his first big impact by starting a trading booth during his initial six months on duty.

Expectations: I was looking forward to Ishmael using his focus and intelligence to tackle increasingly complex challenges—each maybe 20% tougher than the last. Sometimes he’d succeed, sometimes he’d stumble, and it would be his growth as an ordinary, decent person in a demanding world. I thought this was the journey.

Reality: This book wildly redefines Ishmael. He’s no longer the quiet, uncertain young man from [b:Quarter Share|2334538|Quarter Share (Golden Age of the Solar Clipper, #1)|Nathan Lowell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1273808382l/2334538.SY75.jpg|2341114]—instead, he’s transformed into an implausible Gigachad. The change is just...absurd.

I may have misjudged [b:Quarter Share|2334538|Quarter Share (Golden Age of the Solar Clipper, #1)|Nathan Lowell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1273808382l/2334538.SY75.jpg|2341114]’s intent, imagining a grounded series about a regular guy facing increasingly realistic challenges. Maybe I misread the plain, no-frills world as the author’s challenge to make something interesting out of it. Instead, it turns out this is a pure power fantasy: Ishmael’s a Mary Sue who lucks into insane opportunities at every turn. If this is your thing, enjoy the journey—but I'll be waving from the dock as you sail on.

Bonus: A small sample of things I found particularly absurd:


* Randomly referred from one tailor to another elite tailor.
* Receives “magic pants” that make women swoon.
* Gains a “platonic harem” of women who have a spiritual awakening just from watching him try on clothes.
* Every woman starts swooning whenever he walks by.
* The entire ship becomes inexplicably obsessed with his personal life.
* Turns into a master flirt.
* Revealed to be great in bed, apparently since he was 14.
* Handles his liquor like a pro, as his mom had him drinking for years.
* Acquires a magical talisman with an "energy indicator" that’s brighter than anyone’s ever seen.
* Teams up with a random woman (Sarah) who doubles the value of his goods with her selling skills.
* Sarah largely recovers from an abusive relationship after a single good night's sleep?
* Supernatural ability to walk into any open air market and immediately spot the highest ROI item.
* Completely loses all self-doubt.

Letterboxd

The ending threw me a little, but the acting is just so spectacular. I also knew basically nothing about how a pope is selected and found the details of the process interesting.

I have worked at large companies that have a oddly similar atmosphere to the cardinal's politics. Echoes of "what is best for the church" often sound rather similar to "what is best for the company". I found it an interesting contrast.

Letterboxd

This is a little better than Black Adam, but is on the same scale of screw ups in terms of completely failing to capitalize on the source material. Venom is a 2 man act, with Eddie playing the straight man and the Symbiote as his counterpart. Could have had great scenes with the hippy family as they wax on what they have given up. Could have had great scenes as they go through their own "Fear and Loathing" ark in Vegas. Instead, we got this... noise.